Chris Brown is due to perform in New Zealand on tour, but one major obstacle is the fact he’s been banned from nearby Australia for his previous assault conviction (remember, he beat up Rihanna in 2009) and, well, what’s the point of legging it all the way over there if you can’t go to Australia en route? No, but seriously, Brown has been banned from so many countries now that, to enter New Zealand, he’d need special permissions.
While a politician has said he should ‘bugger off’, an unlikely bit of support is from New Zealand’s Maori women. You see, 42% of Maori women claim to have been abused by their romantic partner at some point – domestic abuse is a big problem in New Zealand. And for that to change, says Merepeka Raukawa, a former leader of Women’s Refuge, Brown can come to the country and show that he’s a reformed character.
‘We believe that change can occur and we need a range of people to speak out and demonstrate strong leadership,’ she said. ‘We believe having done the crime and done the time he should be able to enter the country.’
According to Stuff, Dame Tariana Turia, former co-leader of the Maori Party, also said she would support Brown’s entry to the country, as young people are far more likely to listen to him about domestic violence than they will their elders. However, she would expect Chris Brown to talk about domestic abuse should he get to New Zealand.
Whether a chat about his regret at being violent to Rihanna in 2009 – because of the damage it did to her, not because of the temporary dent on his career – makes its way into his performance remains to be seen.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.